


Old fools

by Kes



Series: Thor 2 Rewritten: The Shaded Tree [1]
Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:38:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1391392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kes/pseuds/Kes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justice and politics do not always align, and Frigga's heart hurts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old fools

Odin’s chambers are chilly, the braziers unlit, and the brightest light coming cold through the screen on the window. Frigga has always hated this place, this old city full of marching statues of other kings and draughts and horrendously outdated engineering, but if they must have a Bifrost and there is no rebuilding that at Valaskjalf, at Gladsheim they must reside. As she walks she pulls her samite robe closer around her and carefully keeps her tread firm and angry. “You know why I’m here.”

With a wave of his hand, he banishes the shaft of chilly blue light, flickering with communications and pleas, from the circle before him. In the brief instant before it fades she sees his eyes close, one of the rapidly escalating signs of weariness he has shown these past years. “I would have told you in private, at a better time.”

“I thought you wiser than that. You cannot keep a mother from news of her son’s fate, nor a queen from that of her subject.” Her words are carefully chosen, and she places herself between him and the door; this conversation cannot be deferred with an artfully manufactured appointment.

“I only wished to spare you pain.”

“Would it have been worse had I been able to see my son one last time?” Anger grows in her voice, and she lets it; it will cover up the calculations she is already making. “Have you forgotten who it was who turned Heimdall’s gaze to find him and to prepare ourselves? Have you forgotten who it is who has always given you true counsel?”

He steps towards her, and she does not move. They are the same height now that she no longer goes on warbooted foot. “Your judgement is clouded where your sons are concerned.”

“Our sons. And my judgement no less than yours.” Sometimes she wishes that it was acceptable for people of their station to take their quarrels to the duelling court. “You say that I am too soft where they are concerned; are you not too hard?”

As she speaks, her voice cracks. Is this something only mothers feel? she wonders. Or was he choking it down all the time he was declaring Loki legally dead and ordering him hidden deep in the bowels of this strange palace of his father’s where no-one would ever think to look for him? Such treatment was fit only for the worst of foreign outlaws, people who could not be let out of Asgard’s grasp nor reintegrated through the ordinary mechanisms of Asgardian justice. It was every citizen’s right to make restitution or do penance and have the chance to return chastened into their old life – every citizen but her own son and Odin’s.

He moves towards her and this time she steps away. Neither of them speak for a second; they just stand, the slight gap between them a chasm, and it is Odin who breaks eye contact first. “Frigga, I had to. If it were known what he is and what he has done, everything we have built for ourselves and for Thor and for Asgard would crumble.”

“If it were known what you have done, it would all crumble. Even your loyalest warriors would be forced to look to their rights, and do you think there is any way to keep it from them, since Thor will have to be told as well?” She takes a deep breath, throat reluctantly parting to admit it. This dry argument feels wrong. “Besides, he is your _son _.”__

__“What would you have done?”_ _

__“Ridden out the storm, as we always have. There is precedent for the punishment of a royal son, and he is not beyond hope. Not abandoned him, brought him back. And so I would have told you, had you asked my counsel.” The words come out with more of a jab to them than she intended as she tries to remember the last time he had. After the boys were born, she had been content to step back from statecraft a bit, and now she cannot remember ever having the chance to step forward again._ _

__“That is why I did not.”_ _

__The communications beam springs into life unbidden, and in the brightness Frigga can see how deeply etched the lines on his face are. Her stomach twists. For any lower stakes, she would have dropped the argument and told him to rest, and she thinks that he would like to do the same, but it must not be. Somewhere along the line, they have both got so old while the other wasn’t watching. “When do you listen to any counsel now, let alone ask it?”_ _

__“When it is needed.” He means that he cannot remember; she catches the slight movement of his hand._ _

__One day, when Thor takes the throne and Odin no longer has an excuse for his fortifying fossilisation, they will have to sort this out. Surely that day must come soon. “You are an old fool,” she says, heart tearing at her ribcage, and turns. Breathing is suddenly harder than normal._ _

__As she leaves, she does not turn. All the same, she knows he is watching her every step of the way._ _

__-_ _

__In her own rooms, she assembles the spell carefully. Upon a sideboard is a small model of the palace, given to her on her betrothal night in the traditional exchange of gifts; a fitting gift for a sorcerer queen, she has always thought. Now, she floats it onto her reflecting pool and opens the skydoor above, lets the stars above strike it and turn the model gold as the real palace. She frowns, and it becomes the real palace but yet is not._ _

__Once she finds him, she can reach him. First Legion is hers as much as it is Odin’s, after the defence of Vidholm, and she does not think he will stop her. Eventually, perhaps, she will be able to come to him and give him the chance that he has been denied. She relaxes her fingers; you cannot cast with tense hands. In a hundred years, or when Thor takes the throne, she may be able to get the sentence lifted. She could have her son back._ _

__For a second the old dream, of Thor enthroned and herself and Odin on one side, Loki and Sif on the other resurfaces. Perhaps there is still a chance – she banishes the thought. Whatever happens will not be as she had once thought. Too much has changed. If she can get through to him, bring him back from whatever dark precipice he teeters on, the world they return to is not the same as the one they parted in. They will need new dreams, and this time there will be no secrets at their root._ _

__Back when the greatest foes they had to face were multi-realm uprisings and false spears at home, it all seemed so much simpler._ _


End file.
